London - Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline confirmed Thursday that more jobs would be cut from its global workforce of 100,000 to achieve annual cost-savings of 1.7 billion pounds (2.5 billion dollars) by 2011.

The British company, the world's second-biggest pharmaceutical concern, said 2008 turnover fell to 24.4 billion pounds, a drop of 3 per cent from 2007.

Pre-tax profits fell to 6.66 billion pounds last year from 7.45 billion in 2007, the group said. But profits rose by 16 per cent in the last quarter of 2008 to 6.9 billion pounds, on account of the weak pound, results showed.

The company did not reveal how many more jobs would be lost in further streamlining, but media reports have said that up to 10,000 jobs could be at risk.

GlaxoSmithKline has already cut 2,000 positions in Britain out of a total 10,000 jobs axed worldwide in 2007. (dpa)